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PS5 Devkit & DualShock 5 leak online

Leaked images on Twitter have confirmed the validity of PS5 devkit illustrations from August, and we may have had our first look at the DualShock 5 controller too.

That’s right, it wasn’t a hoax. The DaVinci-esque illustrations that were dismissed last August for resembling a pizza warmer, or high-tech blow heater, have seemingly been confirmed. This is the PS5 in it’s current form and as you can imagine, chins are a’waggin on social media.

Now, it has to be established early on that consoles rarely hit retail looking the same as their dev kit patents, but the level of intricacy in this design suggests this instance could be different. The V shape prototype and vent placements are obviously fundamental to the tech’s function for one.

The final aesthetic will undoubtedly be more sleek – akin to the mock-ups from Let’s Go Digital – but it’d be way left-field to suggest we’re not looking at something close to the final hardware.

Where did the leak come from?

On Tuesday, Twitter user @Alchoholikaust uploaded a spy shot showing two supposed PS5 devkits side by side in an undisclosed location (presumably a Sony manufacturer somewhere), and Eurogamer quickly confirmed the validity of the leaks. Shortly after, The Verge editor Tom Warren chimed in with a tweet to assure us we weren’t be trolled by a student engineer in their parents’ basement. And he gave us some insight into the rationale behind the radical change of shape too.

It’s important to note that devkits are typically built with durability in mind. They’re designed to be as robust as possible to support consoles working under extreme load, and to allow developers to push their units to the max without frying the internal hardware. It’s all about finding the right balance.

What we do know is that Sony are planning on the PS5 being an absolute monster spec-wise, so it was never going to be presented in a neat little package. Personally, I wouldn’t mind compromising on a few extra inches of shelf space for a bespoke 8-core AMD chipset, SSD storage, 3D audio, ray tracing, and 8K TV support. Who needs framed photos or books nowadays anyway? Get a Kindle, boomer.


First look at the DualShock 5?

Granted, we’re not entirely sure how Sony’s flagship console is going to look when it’s unleashed into the wild in 2020. But this leak looks to have given us a first glimpse of the new DualShock 5 controller. Don’t even try telling us that’s been beefed up for maximum toughness either Sony, the things have been one moderate rage away from obsoletion since the PS1.

At first glance it appears the handles on the controller atop the devkit are slightly thicker, which aligns with our previous hunch from Wired’s mock-up sketches last month. It also looks as though the light sensory bar has been scrapped, as we thought. From this single image we can’t see any indication of the new haptic feedback sensors or adaptive triggers because, well, we don’t have X-ray vision, but we’re hoping they’re in that plastic casing somewhere.

What do you think of PlayStation’s new direction with the PS5, do you like the new aesthetic, or think it looks like a set of old bathroom scales? Let us know.

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